List of Invader Zim episodes
Invader Zim|]] is an American animated television series|]] that was produced by and aired on Nickelodeon (TV channel)|Nickelodeon|]]. The series revolves around an extraterrestrial named Zim from the planet Irk and his ongoing mission to conquer and/or destroy a dark and satirical version of the Earth|]]. His various attempts to subjugate and destroy the human race are invariably undermined by some combination of his own ineptitude, his malfunctioning robot servant GIR, and his nemesis Dib, one of very few humans not oblivious enough to be unaware of Zim's identity. Invader Zim was first broadcast on March 30, 2001. The show was targeted at children in their early teens, and met with critical acclaim. However, after the first season the show's ratings began to suffer. Before the second season was completed, Nickelodeon cancelled the series, leaving at least sixteen episodes and a planned Television movie series finale unfinished. Because of its continued fan base and above average DVD sales since cancellation, Invader Zim ''has been called a Cult television|cult hit|]]. The series consists of a pilot episode, 46 episode segments, and at least 17 episodes that were in production at the time of the series' cancellation. As of August 19, 2006, all 46 episodes have aired on television and been released on DVD. On December 24, 2011 the pilot episode finally aired on television. 38 episode segments were originally broadcast in pairs, each 12-minute episode segment debuting in the same half-hour. There are eight double length episodes. This list is ordered by the episode order in the DVD releases, with broadcast dates noted. Almost every episode was directed by Steve Ressel|]]; the only exception is the pilot, which was directed by Jordan Reichek. Series overview Episodes Original Pilot: 1999; 2011 Billy West|]] was the voice of Zim (Invader Zim)|Zim|]] for this episode only. This episode was also created as an animation test. Richard Horvitz|]] was chosen for the series role after the pilot was shown to Nickelodeon because West's voice was too recognizable from ''Futurama|]], according to Invader Zim creator Jhonen Vasquez|]]'s DVD commentary. As a part of Nicktoon's Winter Funderland, the pilot aired for the very first time on TV twelve years after it was made and seven years after it was first officially released on DVD. Satellite company DirecTV|]] marks the episode's airdate "(2011)", meaning that this special did not air in 1999 as it was rumored. Also, the voice of Zim repeatedly changes throughout the episode, meaning that the voice of Billy West was replaced, however, some of his voice acting is still on the episode at some times. Season 1: 2001–2002 } | ShortSummary = Zim gets scared after finding an "FBI Warning" on the movie GIR keeps watching. Zim takes the DVD back to the mall. However, it is closed, but that doesn't stop Zim. After Zim gets in, Sergeant Slab Rankle catches him, takes the DVD, and puts him in a cell with everyone else who breaks rules. Zim escapes with the help of the prisoners, and steals back the DVD to take it to the Video store|]]. After Slab Rankle finds the DVD is missing and releases a zombie|]] army, Zim easily defeats them (they're too mindless to attack), and puts the DVD in the return slot. Then Slab Rankle asks Zim to join him, but he refuses and leaves. | LineColor = 8B008B }} | ShortSummary = Dib throws bologna at Zim during the lunch break at school, which dissolves his skin. As revenge, Zim places a thumbtack|]] on Dib's chair, which he then sits on. The next day Dib discovers that he smells like meat|]] and is ridiculed by the other children, and at that point Zim informs Dib that his vengeance is complete. Dib discovers that Zim has infected him with a virus|]] that is altering his DNA|]] and turning him into bologna|]]. As revenge|]] he infects Zim with the same virus and as they start turning into sausage|]]s (and coming close to being devoured by ravenous free-ranging dog|feral dog|]]s), they both work together to try and find a cure—only to fail and hide in a deserted house. However, it should be noted that in the following episode, Zim and Dib are right back to their normal selves, suggesting that either the virus is temporary, or the show uses a floating timeline. | LineColor = 8B008B }} | ShortSummary = Gaz is in line for a newly released hand-held games console when the person behind her, who introduces himself to her as Iggins, tricks the salesperson into giving the final console to him. Gaz is on the trail of this video game fan boy and pursues him to his home where she removes and destroys all the batteries. Desperate for batteries so he can save his game, Iggins heads to the shopping mall. While in the elevator Gaz scares him into handing over the console. She then puts some batteries into it and continues playing. This episode is the second of three episodes not to feature Zim. The ending was quickly tacked onto the episode because Vasquez says that Nickelodeon protested against killing Iggins. It took several meetings before this ending became a reality|]]. Vasquez claims that Nickelodeon protested, claiming that Vasquez was mocking them with the 'flying away' concept.6 The fictional console Game Slave 2 was originally going to be called the Game Slave Advance. Because of complaints from Nintendo that the name sounded too much like the newly released system at the time, Game Boy Advance, the name was changed.7 | LineColor = 8B008B }} | ShortSummary = Zim sends out probes to planet Mars|]] to see if the planet's any use for the Irken Empire. When the probes send back artificial-looking structures, Zim and GIR then travel to Mars to find out what destroyed the "Marsiods" and to possibly use it to destroy the humans. When Zim lands, he finds the face and finds out that it is really a panel to control the planet built by the "Marsiods". Zim then plans to squish all the humans with Mars. Back on Earth, Dib uses another probe to overhear Zim planning to destroy Earth, he then runs to NASAplace to tell the Members, but like always, they don't believe him. He finds Agent Darkbootie to be the janitor|]], and Darkbootie helps Dib by sending him to Mercury (planet)|Mercury|]], which has been modified the same way Mars has. After Dib controls the planet, Dib finds Zim and tries to stop him. Dib also has cameras to record Zim. However, GIR ends up distracting Dib, and stealing the cameras in the process, preventing Dib from exposing Zim. The battle ends with Zim stupidly controlling the planet into the asteroid belt and being forced to abandon it. Later, Mars crashes into the Irken Armada completely unnoticed by the Almighty Tallest. | LineColor = 8B008B }} | ShortSummary = Dib is doing experiment|]]s with his father's equipment until it goes wrong. Dib manages to launch a portal into a monster world in his forehead. Dib now starts passing in and out of parallel universe (fiction)|an alternate dimension|]] where everything is evil. He manages to force Zim to come into the dimension with him. The monsters capture Zim and say they won't release him if Dib doesn't "surrender his head." It is revealed that Dib's head is the only portal out of the dimension, and all the evil|]] creatures within it want to go through it. Zim saves Dib so that he can get through the portal but he then leaves Dib to the monster|]]s. The monsters have a look through the portal but turn back as they are disgusted by the sight of GIR eating candy. | LineColor = 8B008B }} | ShortSummary = Dib goes on his favorite TV show Mysterious Mysteries to tell the world the story of Zim and to share a video of Zim he had filmed. To Dib's surprise, Zim, GIR, and Gaz also appear on the show to tell their sides of the story. They each tell their own versions, which are then performed in reconstructions on the show for the benefit of the viewer. The presenter of the show decides that Dib and Zim are crazy and tells the viewers that nobody will ever know what truly what happened in the video, leaving Zim's cover saved, once again, by the show's character's stupidity|]]. Although he shows signs of insanity|]] himself, the show received strong ratings because "people love crazy". | LineColor = 8B008B }} | ShortSummary = Professor Membrane constructs an energy creating device and Zim gets the idea to sabotage|]] it to destroy the world. Dib realizes that he must stop Zim, but during his preparations he discovers a version of himself who is beaten up and hurt laying in his bed. This version tells Dib that he is from the future and he needs his help to stop Zim as he's too weak. So Dib goes to where future Dib told him to go, but it is a trap set by Zim, and the future Dib is in fact a robot|]] controlled by Zim. Dib is stuck in a cage with a monkey while future Dib goes to the starting of the energy device to destroy it. Gaz is annoyed by Dib and beats him up, preventing him from causing the wikt:destruction|destruction|]]. She then realises he is a robot after one of its robotic eyes pops out. Zim quickly gets over his loss and decides to watch the real Dib getting tormented by the monkey|]]. | LineColor = 8B008B }} | ShortSummary = Zim requests more powerful weapons but the Almighty Tallest do not want to give them to him, so he is sent to the deadly training planet Hobo 13 to prove he is worthy of the new equipment. Zim, through extreme selfishness and sacrifice of his teammates, surprisingly gets to the end of the trials. The commander, who is appalled at how Zim has acted, decides to take Zim on in a ring-fight|]], but Zim manages to beat him by using the power from his opponent against him. Guest star: R. Lee Ermey|]] | LineColor = 8B008B }} | ShortSummary = Zim is doing time|]] related experiment|]]s on Dib, but the experiment explodes. Dib manages to escape but he is "slowed down" and can only move very slowly. Also produced is an explosion|]], which is also exploding very slowly. Zim decides that the explosion|]] needs to be put into the city cesspit to stop it from exploding and destroying his base. After some frustration and against the advice of GIR and the computer, Zim decides to throw Dib into the explosion to cause it to speed up. The explosion then explodes at normal speed. | LineColor = 8B008B }} | ShortSummary = Due to an angry prisoner who sorts packages, Zim is accidentally shipped a high-powered robot with a cloaking device|]] and he immediately heads off to destroy Dib with it. The robot does not come with batteries, however, so every few blocks, the machine has to be plugged into a new power outlet to stay cloaked. What's more is that the robot is cloaked, but Zim inside is not, making him visible for everyone to see. (Also, the power cord isn't invisible, either.) When he gets to Dib's house the cloak fails, and Dib attempts to take pictures of the robot. However, Dib forgets to take the lens cap off his camera, and Zim destroys the robot so Dib cannot get any pictures of it. | LineColor = 8B008B }} | ShortSummary = There is an infestation of head lice|]] at the school and so a lice hunter comes to investigate the huge outbreak. She quarantines the entire school and Dib believes she is crazy, but it is revealed that there is a giant lice queen beneath the school. The lice hunter soon discovers that the only one who is immune to the infestation|]] is Zim, and uses Zim's Immunity (medical)|immunity|]] to fight the lice queen in a parody of Aliens (film)|Aliens|]]. | LineColor = 8B008B }} | ShortSummary = Zim and GIR are alien abduction|abducted by two aliens|]] who think of them as human and dog|]] specimens. Zim immediately informs the aliens that he is not human and GIR is not a dog, but they don't believe him as they are stupid. Escaping is not difficult, as the aliens have only managed to stop one specimen from escaping in the past. (The specimen that hadn't escaped had been "fused" with far too many things, making his body too heavy to move.) Zim and GIR escape the aliens and return to the base. Guest stars: Brian George|]], Jim Wise|]]. | LineColor = 8B008B }} | ShortSummary = Frustrated at how people see paranormal science, Dib sets out to disprove the urban legend|]] of the Bigfoot|Chickenfoot|]], who is actually a man stuck inside a chicken costume. The zipper|]] on the costume got stuck after a microwave|]] exploded at a chicken restaurant. Dib manages to unstick the zipper and remove the suit, but now people are suggesting that all legends, even ones that Dib believes in, are false. Dib protests, but, because the humans find him mental illness|mentally unstable|]], they didn't care. This is one of three episodes not to feature Zim. | LineColor = 8B008B }} | ShortSummary = Zim is frustrated with how useless GIR is, and puts him in permanent defensive mode. Things start to go wrong when GIR sees Zim himself as a threat to their mission on Earth. GIR escapes to gain more knowledge of the humans so that he can complete the mission. He also tires to zap Zim with his laser|]] vision. GIR is very hard to capture when he's being dutiful, but Zim follows him and manages to put him back into his normal, malfunctioning mode. | LineColor = 8B008B }} | ShortSummary =Zim is hit by a muffin|]] during the school lunchbreak and suspects it is Dib, but he cannot know for sure. That night, in a dream, Dib is visited by aliens and they say they have given him special powers. Dib then uses these powers to threaten Zim, who then willingly turns himself in and has GIR self-destructive behaviour|self-destruct|]]. Time passes and Dib spends his life solving other mysteries and thwarting aliens. Finally, at a very old age, Dib is being interviewed on TV when he is asked if he threw the muffin at Zim and Dib admits it. At that point it is revealed that Zim had simulated Dib's entire life just to find out whether or not Dib was the one who actually threw the muffin. He then proceeds to throw his own muffin at Dib, who then replied "you stink, Zim" and left. Guest star: Greg Ellis (actor)|Greg Ellis|]]. | LineColor = 8B008B }} | ShortSummary = A new girl at school, Tak, joins the class and "has a puppy love|crush|]] on Zim" according to the other children. Tak is actually an Irken, and reveals herself after many failed attempts by Zim of trying to get Tak to be his "love-pig" so he can find out more about the humans. Tak reveals her plan to hollow out the Earth's core and fill it with snack|]]s as an offering to the Almighty Tallest. Zim, Dib, Gaz, and GIR team up to try to stop Tak. Zim distracts her in his spaceship while Dib turns off Tak's machine, while GIR and Gaz manage to wreak havoc remotely. At the end, Dib laments that he is unable to explore beyond Earth, only for Tak's abandoned ship to crash right in front of him. This is the third time in the series that Zim saved the human race. Guest stars: Olivia d'Abo|]], Rob Hummel | LineColor = 8B008B }} |} Season 2: 2002–2006 The second season of Invader Zim aired in 2002. After the season's first episode, the show was cancelled and the episodes that had been completed prior to the cancellation were not shown. The remaining finished episodes were released on DVD in 2004, and finally aired in 2006 on Nicktoons Network|]]. Season 2 was not completed. DVD release 47 of 68 episodes (not including the pilot) of the completed Invader ZIM series have been released on DVD, along with the pilot, an alternate cut of The Most Horrible X-mas Ever, and audio from seven of the unfinished episodes. Later, a DVD boxed set including both the seasons was added to the market. This came with a box shaped like Zim's house with a GIR figure, 46 episodes and all 6 DVDs. The last "new" episode aired in 2011. An "Invader Zim Seasons 1–2" DVD was released on May 4, 2010 by Amazon.com as an on-demand title. These DVDs contain all the episodes, but do not have any commentary or special features. An Invader ZIM DVD was released on February 22, 2011 titled "Operation Doom", which features the highest-rated episodes of the series. References Category:Invader Zim|Episodes|]] Category:Lists of American animated television series episodes|]] Category:Lists of science fiction television series episodes|]]